Democrat Mell Traylor, who served in the state senate in the 1970s, is running again, this time in the 1st District seat held by Savannah Republican Eric Johnson.

"I feel like my life has come full circle," said Traylor, a retired commercial real estate investor and developer. "A few years ago, a friend told me I should seek out what makes me happy. That's what I'm doing. I'm going home."

By going home, of course, Traylor means a return to Georgia politics.

Recently, though, serious - and potentially disqualifying - questions have been raised concerning whether he needs to go home to Georgia first.

His car has South Carolina license plates. Hilton Head Island residents say he's their neighbor.

He's formed at least six groups in the Palmetto State and has had has many addresses there, where, until recently, he was registered to vote. And that's where his only listed phone rings.

All that aside, Traylor's odyssey has been an interesting one.

His first foray into politics was at Savannah High School, where he was elected student body vice president.

That led to an acquaintance with the late U.S. Sen. Herman Talmadge, who hired him as an intern and later as a clerk.

Later came Traylor's upset election to the Senate in 1974.

He did it then as he's trying to do now, mostly by knocking on thousands of doors in a district that includes much of the same political turf as the lst.

At 24, he was the youngest member of the Senate.

"He was full of energy," said local attorney Alan Gaynor, himself a former state lawmaker. "Sort of like the Energizer Bunny."

His main legislative legacy was carrying the bill that set up the state's 911 emergency phone system.

Four years later, it was his age, still short of the legally required 30, that foiled his bid to run for lieutenant governor.

He tried, unsuccessfully, to get the courts to set aside the minimum age provision.

After a losing candidacy for the state Public Service Commission in 1980, Traylor, son of a homebuilder, carved out his own niche in the development industry.

For nearly two decades, he worked on large-scale projects in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, planning the early stages of development for major parcels.

In 2001, Traylor said, he sold most of his land, including miles of Savannah River frontage, to the federal government.

"By then," he said, "I just felt burned out. I just couldn't get excited about what I'd been doing. Once you've made money several times, there's nothing new about it."

A 'concern for people'

So Traylor retired from business and dove into a series of public service and charitable efforts.

They've been almost literally all over the map.

One foray was a trip to Mozambique, where he helped former President Jimmy Carter, a longtime friend, monitor elections.

Another, Hands Across Borders, was Traylor's own creation. It recruits students from countries that have a history of conflicts and gets them together for talks "that don't involve political agendas," he said.

Closer to home, Traylor has set up a foundation that aims to expand the Savannah Wildlife Refuge.

"We want to make it possible for ducks to fly from the ocean to the refuge without being shot at," he said.

Yet another ongoing effort is to promote the creation of a joint Georgia-South Carolina ports authority.

Unless Georgia cooperates with the Palmetto State, he argues, the Savannah port will lose business to one the Carolinians will build closer to the ocean.

He's using the future of the port as an issue in his campaign against Johnson.

Although that effort widely was seen as an uphill one from Day One, Traylor has some enthusiastic supporters.

One of them is Tybee Island Councilman Mallory Pearce.

"I think he's a good man," said Pearce, who met Traylor a few months ago. "He's knowledgeable and what is really important to me is his commitment to the environment."

Pearce also likes Traylor's proposals for more town hall meetings.

"I like his emphasis on participatory democracy," he said.

The Rev. Ben Williams, pastor of the Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church on Hilton Head Island, also admires Traylor.

"I would say we have a similar concept of the world and the community," said Williams, who's known Traylor more than 10 years. "He has a lot of compassion and concern for people, especially the less fortunate."

Residency question

But the portion of his resume that Traylor sometimes glosses over begins in the early 1990s, when his activities focused heavily in South Carolina, and apparently still do.

He left a long paper trail there, which Johnson and others began following in September. At times, Traylor faced almost a headline a day highlighting questions about where he lived.

The secretary of state's office investigated, and following a hearing, an administrative law judge this week recommended that Traylor be disqualified.

"There is no credible evidence to show that Mr. Traylor lives in Senate District 1," Judge Michael Malihi wrote.

The final decision, expected as early as today, is up to Secretary of State Cathy Cox. She usually, but not always, follows judicial recommendations in such matters.

Citing his long personal and family ties to Savannah, Traylor insists he's a legal resident of the district and that Johnson and his allies are "the real carpetbaggers."

He lashed out at the incumbent, claiming he's the second cousin of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, but offered no evidence.

By mid October, local Democrats who'd initially hailed him as a standard bearer they could be proud of, were distancing themselves. His name was omitted from a recent local party piece endorsing the Democratic slate.

Barely a month before, Traylor had said he saw his return to electoral politics as a natural progression from his public service projects.

"I got into politics because I thought I could help people," he said. "That's about the only thing that makes me really feel good."